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Design Rules for Hybrid Additive Manufacturing Combining Selective Laser Melting and Micromilling
(2021)
We report on a comprehensive study to evaluate fundamental properties of a hybrid
manufacturing approach, combining selective laser melting and high speed milling, and to characterize
typical geometrical features and conclude on a catalogue of design rules. As for any additive
manufacturing approach, the understanding of the machine properties and the process behaviour as
well as such a selection guide is of upmost importance to foster the implementation of new machining
concepts and support design engineers. Geometrical accuracy between digitally designed and
physically realized parts made of maraging steel and dimensional limits are analyzed by stripe line
projection. In particular, we identify design rules for numerous basic geometric elements like walls,
cylinders, angles, inclinations, overhangs, notches, inner and outer radii of spheres, chamfers in build
direction, and holes of different shape, respectively, as being manufactured by the hybrid approach
and compare them to sole selective laser melting. While the cutting tool defines the manufacturability
of, e.g., edges and corners, the milling itself improves the surface roughness to Ra < 2 µm. Thus,
the given advantages of this hybrid process, e.g., space-resolved and custom-designed roughness
and the superior geometrical accuracy are evaluated. Finally, we exemplify the potential of this
particular promising hybrid approach by demonstrating an injection mold with a conformal cooling
for a charge socket for an electro mobile
We report on milling and tool wear characteristics of hybrid additive manufacturing comprising laser powder bed fusion and in situ high-speed milling, a particular process in which the cutter mills inside the powder bed without any cooling lubricant being applicable. Flank wear is found to be the dominant wear characteristic with its temporal evolution over utilization period revealing the typical s-shaped dependence. The flank wear land width is measured by microscopy and correlated to the achievable surface roughness of milled 3D-printed parts, showing that for flank wear levels up to 100 μm a superior surface roughness below 3 μm is accessible for hybrid additive manufacturing. Further, based on this correlation recommended tool, life scenarios can be deduced. In addition, by optimizing the finishing tool start position and the number of afore-built layers, the milling process is improved with respect to the maximum millable angle for undercut surfaces of 3D-printed parts to 30° for the roughing process and to 40° for the entire machining process including finishing
Sapphire is a robust and wear-resistant material. However, efficient and high-quality micromachining is still a challenge. This contribution demonstrates and discusses two novels, previously unreported approaches for femtosecond laser-based micromachining of rotational-symmetric sapphire workpieces, whereas both methods are in principal hybrids of laser scanning and laser turning or laser lathe. The first process, a combination of a sequential linear hatch pattern in parallel to the workpiece’s main axis with a defined incremental workpiece rotation, enables the fabrication of sapphire fibers with diameters of 50 µm over a length of 4.5 mm. Furthermore, sapphire specimens with a diameter of 25 µm over a length of 2 mm can be fabricated whereas an arithmetical mean height, i.e., Sa parameter, of 281 nm is achieved. The second process combines a constant workpiece feed and orthogonal scanning with incremental workpiece rotation. With this approach, workpiece length limitations of the first process are overcome and sapphire fibers with an average diameter of 90 µm over a length of 20 cm are manufactured. Again, the sapphire specimen exhibits a comparable surface roughness with an average Sa value of 249 nm over 20 cm. Based on the obtained results, the proposed manufacturing method paves an innovative and flexible, all laser-based way towards the fabrication or microstructuring of sapphire optical devices, and thus, a promising alternative to chemical processes.
This contribution quantifies the birefringence within injection-molded cyclic olefin copolymer plates and discusses its impact on the mechanical properties of the plates. It also focuses on the impact of birefringence on integrated waveguides and Bragg gratings and provides fabrication guidelines for such structures. The anisotropy in all three dimensions of the workpiece is examined by means of polarimetry and a prism coupler. It is found that the birefringence is inhomogenously distributed within the workpieces, whereas the maximum birefringence not only varies locally, but also depends on the observation direction. Overall, a maximum birefringence of 10 × 10−4 is found at the plate’s surface near the injection gate. The anisotropy then reduces exponentially towards the center of the workpiece and saturates at 1.8 × 10−4, in a depth of 0.4 mm. Thus, the birefringence strongly affects near-surface photonic structures. It is found that, depending on their orientation and the local birefringence of the substrate, waveguides and Bragg gratings fabricated with comparable parameters behave completely differently in terms of polarization-dependent optical attenuation, cross-sectional intensity distribution and Bragg reflection signal. For example, the support of the TM mode can vary between total loss and an optical attenuation of 0.9 dB × cm−1. In consequence, this study underlines the importance of quantifying the birefringent state of an injection-molded cyclic olefin copolymer workpiece if it is supposed to serve as a substrate for integrated photonic structures. The study furthermore demonstrates that birefringence effects can be omitted by burying the photonic structures deeper into the volume of the thermoplastic.
Limited process control can cause metallurgical defect formation and inhomogeneous relative density in laser powder bed fusion manufactured parts. This study shows that process monitoring, based on optical melt-pool signal analysis is capable of tracing relative density variations: Unsupervised machine learning, applied to cluster multiple-slice monitoring data, reveals characteristic patterns in this noisy time-series signal, which can be co-registered with geometrical positions in the build part. For cylindrical 15–5 PH stainless steel specimens, manufactured under constant process parameters and post-analyzed by µ-computer tomography, correlations between such patterns and an increased local relative density at the edge have been observed. Finite element method (FEM) modeling of thermal histories at exemplary positions close to the edge suggest pre-heating effects caused by neighboring laser scan trajectories as possible reasons for the increased melt pool intensity at the edge.
We report on the laser ablation of cyclic olefin copolymer using an amplified ultrashort pulsed laser in the ultraviolet spectral range. In addition to a high ablation depth per laser-structured layer up to 74 μm at a fluence of 22 J cm−2, an excellent mean roughness 𝑅𝑎
of laser-patterned surfaces down to 0.5 μm is demonstrated. Furthermore, with increasing fluence, increasing ablation efficiencies up to 2.5 mm3 W−1 min−1 are determined. Regarding the quality of the ablation, we observed steep ablation flanks and low debris formation, though for fluences above 10.5 J cm−2 the formation of troughs was observed, being attributed to multiple reflections on the ablation flanks. For comparison, laser ablation was performed under identical conditions with an infrared laser wavelength. The results highlight that UV ablation exhibits significant advantages in terms of ablation efficiency, surface roughness and quality. Moreover, our results show that a larger UV focus spot accelerates the ablation process with comparable quality, paving the way for high-power UV ultrashort pulsed lasers towards an efficient and qualitative tool for the laser machining of cyclic olefin copolymer. The production of complex microfluidics further underlines the suitability of this type of laser.
This contribution demonstrates and discusses the preparation of finely dispersed copper(II) oxide nanosuspensions as precursors for reductive laser sintering (RLS). Since the presence of agglomerates interferes with the various RLS sub-processes, fine dispersion is required, and oversized particles must be identified by a measurement methodology. Aside from the established method of scanning electron microscopy for imaging individual dried particles, this work applies the holistic and statistically more significant laser diffraction in combination with dynamic image analysis in wet dispersion. In addition to direct ultrasonic homogenization, high-energy ball milling is introduced for RLS, to produce stable nanosuspensions with a high fine fraction, and, above all, the absence of oversize particles. Whereas ultrasonic dispersion stagnates at particle sizes between 500 nm and 20 μm, even after 8 h, milled suspension contains a high proportion of finest particles with diameters below 100 nm, no agglomerates larger than 1 μm and a trimodal particle size distribution with the median at 50 nm already, after 100 min of milling. The precursor layers produced by doctor blade coating are examined for their quality by laser scanning microscopy. The surface roughness of such a dry film can be reduced from 1.26 μm to 88 nm by milling. Finally, the novel precursor is used for femtosecond RLS, to produce homogeneous, high-quality copper layers with a sheet resistance of 0.28 Ω/sq and a copper mass concentration of 94.2%.
Evaluation of an ultrashort pulsed laser robot system for flexible and large-area micromachining
(2023)
We report for the first time on the realization, characterization and application of an ultrashort pulsed laser robot system for flexible and large-area 2D and 3D laser micromachining with 6 articulated axes. To characterize the dynamic positioning of the laser beam during and after axes movement, CMOS image sensors were integrated into the beam path. A method introduced for the alignment of the optical axes allows a reduction of the deviations in laser beam positioning to less than 141.8 ± 92.9 μm within a 110° rotation range of axis 4. In addition, a high laser beam positioning repeatability of less than 102.2 μm is demonstrated over a total period of 14 h for a movement of axis 5 within a range of 0° to 90°. Initial laser cutting, laser structuring and laser marking applications on automotive dashboards and glass substrates are presented for flexible and large area 2D and 3D manufacturing. By applying a special laser cutting strategy for processing AF 32 eco thin glass, high cutting quality is achieved with a taper of up to 96.3% without the generation of cracks, demonstrating the innovative potential of the high-precision laser robot system. Nonetheless, different identified inherent influences of each axis 1–5 during robot axis movement demand for an innovative beam stabilization concept to achieve high precision in laser beam positioning.
We report on an experimental study of laser microvia percussion drilling of Ajinomoto build-up film (ABF) material using an ultrashort pulsed laser in the ultraviolet region. In order to optimize the drilling quality in terms of the fabricated taper and microvia diameter, the
MHz burst mode is used in combination with both a Gaussian and a top-hat laser intensity distribution. To evaluate the influence of the top-hat beam shape on defocusing, microvias were drilled at different z-positions in the range of 200 μm evenly distributed around the focal plane. The drilling quality was evaluated by laser scanning microscopy and metallography. When using a top-hat beam shape, a reduced taper of down to 26.8 % on average is achieved compared to a Gaussian beam. For the application of 3 intra-burst pulses, we find an improvement of the taper by 11.6% compared to the single pulse mode due to the increasing heat accumulation. Using a top-hat beam shape in combination with the MHz burst mode, an 18.2 % reduction in laser drilling time for a microvia with a similar taper is remarkable, demonstrating the high potential for scaling throughput in electronics manufacturing.
We demonstrate and discuss the integration of Bragg gratings in aerosol-jetted polymer optical waveguides, produced in the optical assembly and connection technology for component-integrated bus systems (OPTAVER) process. By using a femtosecond laser and adaptive beam shaping, an elliptical focal voxel generates different types of single pulse modification by nonlinear absorption in the waveguide material, which are arranged periodically to form Bragg gratings. Integration of a single grating structure or, alternatively, an array of Bragg grating structures in the multimode waveguide yields a pronounced reflection signal with typical multimodal properties, i.e., a number of reflection peaks with non-Gaussian shapes. However, the main wavelength of reflection, located around 1555 nm, is evaluable by means of an appropriate smoothing algorithm. When loaded by mechanical bending, a pronounced Bragg wavelength shift of this reflected peak up to 160 pm is detected. This demonstrates that the additively manufactured waveguides can be used not only for signal transmission but also as a sensor.
We report on ultraviolet ultrashort pulsed laser processing of silicon carbide. Laser ablated cavities are evaluated with respect to their ablation rates, surface roughness and overall quality by varying the laser pulse fluence. Using this type of laser, high edge quality and surface roughness down to 107 nm can be achieved with an ablation efficiency of up to 0.228 mm 3 W −1 min −1. Functional surfaces are produced by generating laser induced periodic surface structures. The comparison with infrared wavelength underlines the advantages of the ultraviolet wavelength for laser micro machining this material. Significant differences with respect to the measured ablation depths and roughness as well as generated micro-and nanostructures appear. While infrared ablation is dominated by a chipping mechanism above a critical fluence of 9.93 Jcm −2 , higher ablation rates are observed with strong quality losses at the same time. In comparison to the infrared emission wavelength, in general , a significantly higher processing quality is achieved with the ultraviolet emission wavelength. In addition, the influence of spot size and repetition rate in UV processing is investigated. By increasing these parameters, a process acceleration without quality losses is enabled. The generation of a sophisticated microstructure exemplifies the advantages of processing silicon carbide with the UV laser reported here.
We report on the acceleration of femtosecond reductive laser sintering of copper (II) oxide on the surface of transparent cyclic olefin copolymers (COC) by varying the focus size to generate metallic copper (Cu) layers. By using different focusing conditions, different process speeds are achieved, and the structural accuracies are controlled. The formation of Cu lines is observed for different focus sizes at various scan speeds, which is attributed to laser exposure duration and chemical reaction time. The formed lines are categorized and measured by optical microscopy and provide the basis for two-dimensional Cu surfaces. By hatching, high quality conductive films are produced with an increased focus diameter of up to 400 µm at a scan speed of 400 mm/s and a hatch distance of 250 µm resulting in a multiple increased process speed by a factor of thirteen compared to previous research. Using 4-tip measurement , a low sheet resistance of 0.165 Ω/sq was validated on these Cu films, which have an atomic Cu content of 89.5%.
In this contribution, we report on the generation of internal microchannels with basically unlimited channel length inside of PMMA bulk material by femtosecond laser. A precisely controllable and stable circular channel cross section is obtained by using a spatial light modulator to compensate the writing depth depending spherical aberration. Furthermore, the generation of a rotatable elliptical input beam by adaptive optics ensures a fitting of the beam shaping to the writing direction. In this study, we report on both, the effect of the ellipticity of the input beam and the effect of a correction of the spherical aberration on the circularity of the resulting internal microchannels. Moreover, we demonstrate the application of this writing technique by creating microfluidic testing structures inside of a transparent standard polymer.
While sapphire is one of the most durable materials, its properties entail that high-precision machining, especially in the sub-millimeter regime, is still challenging. This contribution demonstrates and discusses novel femtosecond laser-based micromachining approaches for the fabrication of rotational-symmetric sapphire workpieces, specifically the generation of optical fibers by means of laser lathe of sapphire rods and the practical realization of windmill fibers. In addition, volume refractive index modification in planar sapphire substrates is presented to induce photonic crystal waveguides. The micromachined structures are comprehensively examined with respect to geometric fidelity, surface roughness, refractive index modification, and potential optical waveguiding properties. All micromachining approaches are done by means of frequency-doubled or frequency-tripled femtosecond laser radiation. Different laser optical setups including laser scanning head, spatial beam profilers including a spatial light modulator and axial rotatory movement of the specimen are employed for micro structuring and in-depth refractive index modifications. In particular for laser lathe, a sophisticated scanning pattern, in combination with an incremental axial rotatory movement of the specimen, allows for the precise diameter reduction of sapphire rods with 250 µm diameter to fibers with outer diameters of 25 µm. By supporting the workpiece with a V-groove fixture, multi-mode fibers with lengths up to 20 cm can be processed with an average surface roughness of 250 nm. Additionally, an adapted ablation scanning sequence enables the first practical demonstration of sapphire windmill fibers. Furthermore, using a spatial light modulator allows for the adaption of the laser propagation properties as to enable volume refractive index modifications with free-form arrangement. Hexagonal patterns of refractive index modifications surrounding a pristine waveguide core are fabricated and single-mode waveguiding at 1550 nm is verified. Finally, the possibility of integrating Bragg gratings into this photonic waveguide type is demonstrated
While Bragg grating-based optical devices have shown promising performances for pressure sensing applications, their sensitivity, especially in the low-pressure regime, is unsatisfying and needs to be optimized by elaborate designs, such as cantilevers or other extrinsic mechanical transducers. This contribution demonstrates and discusses a novel concept for optical pressure sensors based on polymer planar Bragg gratings. Waveguide and Bragg grating are fabricated underneath the surface of a temperature-stable and humidity-insensitive cyclic olefin copolymer substrate by means of a femtosecond laser. Based on the employed direct-writing procedure, in combination with adaptive, in-situ beam shaping with a spatial light modulator, writing depth, i.e., location of the photonic structures within the substrate, as well as Bragg grating periodicity and positioning can be deliberately chosen. Afterwards, the polymer substrate is post-processed with a high-precision micro mill, so a diaphragm comprising the integrated photonic structures is generated. The resulting diaphragm exhibits a thickness of 300 µm and a diameter of 10 mm. Finally, the optical sensor is packaged and sealed to form an air-filled gas pocket underneath the diaphragm. Deformations of the diaphragm by external pressure changes translate to strain variations along the waveguide axis and thus perturb the Bragg grating period. This leads to changes in the grating’s wavelength of main reflection, which can be evaluated in order to quantify the relative external pressure. With this straightforward optical sensor concept, pressure sensitivities up to 39 pm kPa-1, within relative pressures ranges from 78 kPa to 372 kPa, are achieved.
Microfluidic lab on chip systems require components to transport, mix, separate and analyse small volumes of different fluids. In this study, we report on the laser generation of internal hollow architectures created by focused 514 nm femtosecond laser pulses inside PMMA bulk material. Size and cross-sectional shape of a single internal generated microchannel are determined by the intensity distribution inside the focal voxel and can be controlled either by the numerical aperture of the focusing objective or by laser beam shaping. As both approaches are practically limited with respect to the realizable cross-sectional shapes, we present a process based on an internal hatching to expand the achievable channel cross-sections and thereby enable the possibility to create complex 3D shaped internal structures. This process is applied to create fully internal functional microfluidic elements such as mixers which are part of most polymer lab-on-chip systems.
We present an experimental study on fiber laser micromachining of 4H-SiC semiconductor. In particular, we optimize the process time for percussion drilling of 440 µm and 330 µm thick wafers with a minimum drilling time of, eg, 7.5 ms being achieved for 330 µm thick wafers. The drilled holes are characterized by a low taper, a high circularity and entry diameters of about 60 µm. For laser cutting, effective cutting speeds of 2 mm/s and 0.63 mm/s are obtained for 330 µm and 440 µm wafer thickness, respectively, with the cut kerf width being 65 µm. Both processes are associated with a good quality that is characterized by no chipping and cracks. The capability of the fiber laser based micromachining process is highlighted by cutting complex micrometer scale inner and outer contours into partially metallized SiC wafers with high quality.
Vergleich der thermischen Eigenschaften unterschiedlicher insulated metal substrat-Leiterplatten
(2010)
Laser-fabricated axicons challenging the conventional optics in glass processing applications
(2020)
We report on a comprehensive study of laser percussion microvia drilling of Ajinomoto build-up film (ABF) material using an ultrashort pulsed laser in MHz burst mode. After laser processing, microvia drilling quality is being evaluated by the fabricated diameter and taper using laser scanning microscopy and metallography. The influences of the incubation effect, heat accumulation and shielding effects as a result of pulse to pulse interactions are being discussed on the ablation threshold, penetration depth and laser microvia drilling quality. We find that an increasing heat accumulation in MHz burst mode processing is responsible for the void formation and delamination of the insulating ABF layer. Therefore, the parameter clearance is introduced to evaluate these effects on the microvia sidewalls. For a comparable clearance, applying 2 intra-burst pulses achieves an average reduced taper of down to 19.5% compared to single pulse mode. At the same time, a reduced laser drilling time of 16.7% per microvia highlights the enormous potential of the MHz burst mode for laser drilling of ABF material in printed circuit board fabrication.
This article proposes and demonstrates a robust microstructure-based fiber-to-chip coupling scheme for planar Bragg grating devices. A polymer planar Bragg grating substrate is manufactured and microstructured by means of a micromilling process, while the respective photonic structures are generated by employing a sophisticated single-writing UV-exposure method. A stripped standard single mode fiber is inserted into the microstructure, which is filled with a UV-curable adhesive, and aligned with the integrated waveguide. After curing, final sensor assembly and thermal treatment, the proposed coupling scheme is capable of withstanding pressures up to 10 bar, at room temperature, and pressures up to 7.5 bar at an elevated temperature of 120 °C. Additionally, the coupling scheme is exceedingly robust towards tensile forces, limited only by the tensile strength of the employed single mode fiber. Due to its outstanding robustness, the coupling scheme enables the application of planar Bragg grating devices in harsh environments. This fact is underlined by integrating a microstructure-coupled photonic device into the center of a commercial-grade carbon fiber-reinforced polymer specimen. After its integration, the polymer-based Bragg grating sensor still exhibits a reflection peak with a dynamic range of 24 dB, and can thus be employed for sensing purposes.
This study demonstrates and discusses a novel approach for the fabrication and rapid prototyping of monolithic photonic platforms comprising a ridge-type waveguide with integrated sensing structures. First, the bulk injection-molded cyclic olefin copolymer substrates are micromilled in order to define the physical extension of the ridge structure. Cross-sections down to 30 × 30 µm2, exhibiting a mean surface roughness of 300 nm, are achieved with this process. Subsequently, UV radiation is used to modify the ridge structure’s refractive index, which leads to the formation of an optical waveguide. By employing a phase mask, it is possible to equip the photonic platform with a Bragg grating suitable for temperature measurements with a sensitivity of −5.1 pm K-1. Furthermore, an integrated Fabry-Pérot cavity, generated during the micromilling step as well, enables refractive index measurements with sensitivities up to 1154 nm RIU-1.
This contribution demonstrates and discusses electrically tunable polymer planar Bragg gratings based on bulk cyclic olefin copolymers. A lithographic single-writing-step method and femtosecond laser reductive sintering of copper(II) oxide nanoparticles are subsequently employed in order to generate buried photonic structures and copper conducting paths on top of the polymer substrate. This way, the necessary number of process steps for fabricating a planar polymer-based electro-optical device is greatly reduced. The response of a fully electrified grating structure follows temperature changes, induced by the copper conducting path, with sensitivities up to −31 pm K−1. Dilatometric measurements show that the specimen's behavior is correlated to the situationally reduced thermal expansion of the bulk polymer substrate. In consequence, the tuning response of the photonic platform follows a second order polynomial, whereas a direct current of 30 mA, which correlates to a power consumption of 18.3 mW, leads to a local temperature increase and a residual Bragg wavelength shift of 19.6 K and −547 pm, respectively. Moreover, the outstanding flexibility of the proposed fabrication concept is underlined by demonstrating alternative conducting path geometries, whereas one of the additional designs is adapted to control the spectral width of the Bragg grating's reflection peak.
Microneedle-based microfluidic systems have a great potential to become well-accepted medical devices for simple, accurate, and painless drug delivery and lab-on-a-chip diagnostics. In this work, we report on a novel hybrid approach combining femtosecond direct laser written microneedles with femtosecond laser generated microfluidic channels providing an important step towards versatile medical point-of-care systems. Hollow microneedle arrays are fabricated by a laser system designed for two-photon polymerization applications. Compression tests of two different types of truncated cone-shaped microneedle arrays prepared from OrmoComp® give information about the microneedle mechanical strength, and the results are compared to skin insertion forces. Three-dimensional microchannels are directly created inside PMMA bulk material by an ultrashort pulse laser system with vertical channels having adjustable cross-sectional areas, which allow attaching of microneedles to the microfluidic system. A comprehensive parameter study varying pulse duration and repetition rate is performed on two-photon polymerization to identify an optimal laser power range for fabricating microneedles using the same pulse duration and repetition rate as for microchannels. This addresses the advantage of a single laser system process that overcomes complex fabrication methods. A proof of concept flow test with a rhodamine B dye solution in distilled water demonstrates that the combination of microneedles and microchannels qualifies for microfluidic injection and extraction applications.
This paper presents an optimized laser-bonding process for piezoelectric energy-harvesters based on thin fluorinated-ethylene-propylene (FEP) foils, using an ultra-short-pulse(USP) laser. Due to the minimized thermal stress in the material during bonding, achieved bypulse durations of few picoseconds, we created seams down to 40μm width without generatingholes in the 12.5μm thick FEP-foils. Using a galvanometer scanning system allowed for fastbonding-speed up to several centimeters per second, making the process also suitable for largestructures and areas. The achieved bond strength of the seams under influence of shearingstress was examined using tensile testing, which showed a sufficient strength of about 25 % of the maximum strength of an unbonded, single layer of FEP.
This contribution reviews recent advancements, current research and possible applications of polymer planar Bragg grating (PPBG) sensors with a focus on the utilization of cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) substrates. COC-PPBGs can be handled and fabricated efficiently by employing a single writing step procedure which features simultaneous generation of waveguide and Bragg grating structure within an injection molded substrate. The resulting photonic structures exhibit an attenuation as low as 1.2 dB cm-1 and a reflectivity up to 99 %. The potential of COC-PPBGs for high-temperature applications is proven by demonstrating temperature measurements up to 160 °C. Moreover, it is possible to employ single PPBGs for multidimensional stress and strain sensing or even three-dimensional shape reconstruction. Due to their excellent properties, it is feasible to integrate COC-PPBGs into commercial-grade carbon fiber reinforced polymer workpieces for structural health monitoring. Furthermore, utilization of appropriate coatings enables functionalization of PPBGs for refractive index sensing and thus biochemical applications. Beside the fabrication and characterization of COC-based PPBGs, this contribution exemplifies and reviews such applications.
Evanescent wave planar bragg grating sensor for real-time detection of unlabelled biomolecules
(2011)
Influence of film thickness on laser ablation threshold of transparent conducting oxide thin-films
(2014)
This contribution discusses the integration of polymer planar Bragg grating sensors (PPBG) into carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) components. For the first time, it is shown that PPBGs based on cyclic olefin copolymers can be integrated into commercial-grade composites, thereby withstanding the demanding production processes. Pre-impregnated fibers are stacked and partially modified to form a sensor pocket. Afterwards, the CFRP specimen containing the optical sensor is cured in a heated mechanical press for 2 hours at a pressure of 7 bar and a temperature of 120 °C. A subsequent evalutaion of the sensor signal shows a Bragg wavelength shift of 1236 pm and a decline in signal amplitude of -2 dB. Three-point flexural tests of the cured sample reveal a linear behavior of the sensor signal towards external loads. The determined sensitivity in dependence of the CFRP specimen's maximum central deflection is -112 pm/mm, while correlation to the applied force results in a sensitivity of -5 pm/N.
Thin film ablation with pulsed nanosecond lasers can benefit from the use of beam shaping optics to transform the Gaussian beam profile with a circular footprint into a Top-Hat beam profile with a rectangular footprint. In general, the quality of the transformed beam profile depends strongly on the beam alignment of the entire laser system. In particular, the adjustment of the beam shaping element is of upmost importance. For an appropriate alignment of the beam shaper, it is generally necessary to observe the intensity distribution near the focal position of the applied focusing optics. Systems with a low numerical aperture (NA) can commonly be qualified by means of laser beam profilers, such as a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera. However, laser systems for micromachining typically employ focus lenses with a high NA, which generate focal spot sizes of only several microns in diameter. This turns out to be a challenge for common beam profiling measurement systems and complicates the adjustment of the beam shaper strongly. In this contribution, we evaluate the quality of a Top-Hat beam profiling element and its alignment in the working area based on the ablated geometry of single pulse ablation of thin transparent conductive oxides. To determine the best achievable adjustment, we develop a quality index for rectangular laser ablation spots and investigate the influences of different alignment parameters, which can affect the intensity distribution of a Top-Hat laser beam profile.
This contribution demonstrates the functionality of polymer planar Bragg grating (PPBG) sensors integrated into commercial-grade carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) components. Multiple CFRP specimens are generated by curing a stack of pre-impregnated fibers inside of a heated mechanical press, exposing the polymer sensor to a pressure of 7 bar and a temperature of 120 °C for 2 h. After integration, the sensor still exhibits a strong and evaluable signal. Subsequent flexural experiments reveal a linear response of the integrated sensor’s Bragg wavelength to the CFRP specimen’s maximum deflection. Additional findings demonstrate that the embedded PPBG can be used to detect plastic deformations of a CFRP workpiece, whereas a linear correlation of plastic deformation to the resulting Bragg signal offset is determined. A plausibility check of the obtained results is delivered by a comparison of three-point flexural experiments on bulk CFRP workpieces, without integrated sensors and additional specimens featuring external optical sensors affixed to their surface. It is found that PPBGs based on cyclic olefin copolymers are able to overcome the temperature-related limitations of traditional polymer-based optical sensors and can thus be directly integrated into commercial-grade composites during production.